Method and system for providing directory assistance to erroneous telephone calls

• US 8,254,547 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2009
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blake Bookstaff, Daniel E. Gallagher, James J. Sonnick, Michael G. Thorpe
• Original Assignee: Blake Bookstaff, Daniel E. Gallagher, James J. Sonnick, Michael G. Thorpe
• Inventors: Bookstaff, Blake, Sonnick, James J., Thorpe, Michael G., Gallagher, Daniel E.
• Primary Examiner(s): HONG, HARRY S
• Application Number:
  US12/364,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20090175431A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,302 Days
• Field of Search: 379/201.01, 379/204.01, 379/211.01, 379/212.01, 379/213.01, 379/218.01
• US Class Current: 379/218.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4874 Intercept announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A method and system for providing directory assistance to erroneous calls. The method and system includes an intercept system that intercepts erroneous calls and automatically routes them to a directory assistance service. The directory assistance service provides a least one advertisement and a variety of other internal and external information services to the callers using a business subscriber information service, a white page database service; a yellow pages database service; a business intelligence database service; and/or an Internet search service.

Claims

1. A system for deriving information associated with an unavailable telephone number or subscriber and providing said information to a caller attempting to place a telephone call to said unavailable telephone number, the system comprising in combination:

an intercept system coupled to a directory assistance service, wherein the intercept system intercepts the telephone call on a telephony network to the unavailable number before initiating any action by the telephony network back to the caller, wherein the unavailable number includes non-existent numbers or numbers not implemented on the telephony network;

the directory assistance service; and

one or more information services coupled to the directory assistance service,

wherein the direct assistance service uses the one or more information services to search for information about the unavailable number and the caller'"'"'s number to provide additional information and advertising to the caller from the one or more information sources external to the telephony network and one or more information sources internal to the telephony network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the intercept system coupled to the directory assistance service includes a system comprising in combination:

for intercepting the telephone call made to the unavailable telephone number;

for routing the telephone call to the directory assistance service; and

for providing at least one advertisement to the caller.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of the one or more information services is coupled to the intercept system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of the one or more information services resides within the intercept system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more information services is selected from the group consisting of:

a) a business subscriber information service coupled to the directory assistance system;

b) a white page database service coupled to the directory assistance system;

c) a yellow pages database service coupled to the directory assistance system;

d) a business intelligence database service coupled to the directory assistance system; and

e) an Internet search service coupled to the directory assistance system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the intercept system is further coupled to one or more additional database services selected from the group consisting of:

a) a business subscriber information service;

b) a white page database service;

c) a yellow pages database service;

d) a business intelligence database service; and

e) an Internet search service.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the directory assistance service is coupled to the one or more additional database services.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein a plurality of the one or more additional database services contains information derived from a telephone number.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the information derived from a telephone number comprises:

listing name;

listing address;

listing geographic location;

listing business category; and

listing call frequency.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the directory assistance service contains entries for businesses able to be located by business location and business category.

11. A method of deriving information from an unavailable telephone number and subscriber, the method comprising:

detecting telephone call to an unavailable number on a telephony network initiated by a caller;

intercepting the telephone call on the telephony network to the unavailable number before initiating any action by the telephony network back to the caller, wherein the unavailable number includes non-existent numbers or numbers not implemented on the telephony network;

retrieving the caller'"'"'s telephone number;

automatically routing the detected and intercepted telephone call to an automatic intercept system associated with a directory assistance service;

automatically routing the detected and intercepted telephone call from the automatic intercept system to the directory assistance service;

providing directory assistance back to the caller;

determining information associated with the telephone call; and

providing at least one advertisement to the caller from the directory assistance service.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of determining information associated with the telephone call further comprises the steps of:

determining information associated with the telephone number;

determining information associated with the unavailable telephone number; and

determining information associated with the combination of the telephone number and the unavailable telephone number.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of determining information from the unavailable telephone number includes the step of deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented by the telephone number.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented by the telephone number includes the step of retrieving the listing name of said subscriber from a white page database using a reverse telephone number search for the telephone number.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented by the telephone number includes the step of retrieving the listing name of said subscriber from telephone company supplied business subscriber information using a reverse telephone number search for the telephone number.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented by the telephone number includes the step of retrieving the listing name of said subscriber from a business intelligence database using a reverse telephone number search for the telephone number.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of determining information from the telephone number includes the step of deriving the business category of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of deriving the business category of the subscriber represented by the telephone number includes the step of retrieving the business category of said subscriber from a yellow page database using a reverse telephone number search for the telephone number.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of deriving the business category of the subscriber represented by the caller'"'"'s telephone number includes the step of retrieving the business category of said subscriber from a business intelligence database using a reverse telephone number search for the caller'"'"'s telephone number.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of deriving the business category of the subscriber represented by the telephone number further comprises the steps of:

a) deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented by the telephone number;

b) parsing said listing name into listing name words and phrases;

c) determining one or more business categories associated with the listing name words and phrases;

d) selecting the derived business category from among the one or more determined business categories.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of deriving the listing name of the subscriber represented by the telephone number includes the step of retrieving the listing name of the subscriber from an Internet search engine using a telephone number search for the caller'"'"'s telephone number.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of determining one or more business categories associated with the listing name words and phrases includes the step of applying logical rules from a rule base to the listing name words and phrases.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of deriving the business category of the subscriber represented by the caller'"'"'s telephone number includes the step of retrieving the business category of said subscriber from an Internet search engine using a telephone number search for the caller'"'"'s telephone number.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of determining information from the unavailable telephone number includes the step of deriving the location of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of deriving the location of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number includes the step of using a reverse telephone number search for the unavailable telephone number to retrieve the subscriber location from a service selected from the group consisting of:

a white page database service;

a yellow pages database service;

a business intelligence database service; and

a service providing telephone company supplied business subscriber information.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of deriving the location of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number includes the step of deriving the address of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of deriving the location of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number includes the step of deriving the geographic code (GeoCode) of the subscriber represented by the unavailable telephone number.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of software instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of:

detecting telephone call to an unavailable number on a telephony network initiated by a caller;

intercepting the telephone call on the telephony network to the unavailable number before initiating any action by the telephony network back to the caller, wherein the unavailable number includes non-existent numbers or numbers not implemented on the telephony network;

retrieving the caller'"'"'s telephone number;

automatically routing the detected and intercepted telephone call to an automatic intercept system associated with a directory assistance service;

automatically routing the detected and intercepted telephone call from the automatic intercept system to the directory assistance service;

providing directory assistance back to the caller;

determining information associated with the telephone call; and

providing at least one advertisement to the caller from the directory assistance service.